A space dustcart drops a lot of rubbish on the Clangers’ planet. The Clangers notice that one of these bits looks surprisingly like a robot. Major Clanger tries to get it to work, and to his astonishment, he succeeds. The robot comes to life, and even more amazingly it seems able to speak in Clanger-ese, although in a voice different from the Clangers’ whistle. The Clangers soon discover that this is a household helper robot. But sometimes helpfulness can be too much of a good thing.